New Kid On The Block
by ameliagianna
Summary: AU: After her mom's death and her dad's alcoholism, Kate is put in a foster home. She lives a fairly content life with her brothers, Javier Esposito and Kevin Ryan, and Cap. Roy Montgomery. When a new family moves in across the street, everything changes.
1. Happy Birthday!

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

Three voices boomed through the small kitchen. Four people were wrapped around the even smaller, circular table in the middle of the room, a homemade birthday cake with candles stacked high in top of the wooden surface.

"Come on, Javi, make a wish!" Kate encouraged her foster brother.

He faked a look of deep thought, then blew out all seventeen candles in a single breath.

"Whoa," Kevin whispered. He looked up at Javier. "What did ya wish for?" he asked in his normal voice, which cracked lightly, caught between adolescence and adulthood.

"I can't tell you, dude. It's against the rules." He crossed his arms over his broad chest. "But for the record," he whispered to the boy beside him, "I wished for a _chica_."

"Who?"

"Oh, like any girl would ever like you!" Kate interjected, laughing and licking a bit of frosting from her finger.

"Whatever, Beckett. You know Lanie's got the hots for me."

"Yeah, in your dreams."

"Hey, guys, calm down. This is a celebration!" Roy bellowed at the bickering teenagers.

"Sorry," they said in unison.

"Hey, can we do presents now?" Kevin asked eagerly.

"Hell yes! Whatcha got for me, Ryan?"

"Language, Esposito," Roy warned.

"Aw, Cap, I'm seventeen. I think a 'hell' or a 'damn' here or there isn't a big deal."

"Whatever, boy. I won't have you talkin' like that in my house."

"Here, Javi." Kevin handed over a large box wrapped in royal blue paper.

He ripped off the paper. "Oh, a new football! Thanks, man. Now I don't have to steal—"

Roy raised his eyes to look at Javier.

"I mean _borrow_ one from the school."

Kate giggled at the moment.

"Well, what about you, _chica_? What'd you get me?"

Kate brought a pair of Aviator sunglasses from behind her back.

"Ooh, shades." He plucked them from her hand and then slid them on in slow motion, "I look good, huh?"

"It's an improvement," Kate joked. "They only cover a small portion of your face, though. Next year, I'll get bigger ones."

"Shut up, you know I'm smokin'."

"I know you must be smokin' somethin' if you think you mug is anything but terrifying!"

"Hey! What did I say?" Roy cut in.

"Whatever. She's just jealous, Cap. Right, Kev?"

"No comment," he said, mouth full of cake.

Kate swiped another finger full of frosting from his piece, which got a muffled "Hey!" from him.

"What about you, Cap? Lay it on me."

"Boy, I made the cake!"

"Oh. Remind me not to eat it, then."

"You are gonna eat it, and you are gonna like it."

"Ease up, Captain. I was just kiddin'!"

"Just kiddin', my ass," Roy said under his breath.

"Hey, language!" Kevin said, after polishing off the first piece of cake and already going for a second.

"_My_ house. I can say whatever _I_ want."

Kate went to wash some frosting from her hand in the sink. "Cap, I promised Lanie I would help her study for a Chemistry quiz we got tomorrow."

"Sure, sure, Kate. Wanna take her a piece of cake?"

"Better make it two, I haven't had my piece yet and Kev's about to swallow the thing whole."

"It's good!" he exclaimed, mouth full again.

"You walkin' over there?" Roy asked, cutting the cake.

"No, she's picking me up in her mom's car and we're going to the library."

"Okay, but I want you back by ten."

"I know." Kate retrieved the Tupperware with the cake from the table.

"I'll, uh, walk you out," Javier said.

"You just wanna see Lanie," Kate teased.

"Psh, she ain't nothin' to see!"

"Esposito, you better not be talkin' about that nice girl like that!"

"I'm not, Cap," he sighed.

"All right, then how about we _all_ walk Kate out?"

The four moved out of the kitchen and through the side door to the driveway.

Outside, they all watched as someone opened a huge moving truck in the driveway of the house across the street.

"Well, I guess they finally sold the place," Roy stated.

A boy, about the same age as Kate and her brothers, climbed out of the passenger side of the truck. He walked around to the back and spotted the crowd across the street. He raised his hand above his head, waving before he turned to pull a box from the truck.

Just then, Lanie pulled up. "Kay-tee! Let's go, girl!" she called from her open window. Kate jogged around to the other side and climbed in. Javier took a couple steps towards the car.

"Hey, Lanie. How 'bout a birthday kiss?" he asked playfully.

"Only in your dreams, Javi."

Kate buckled her seatbelt. "Let's go."

"Bye, Kevin. Bye, Captain," she called before pulling away from the house.

"Oh, that brother of yours is fine!" she said when they were a safe distance from the house.

"Who, Kevin?" she asked, jokingly.

"No, boo, Javi. He is one fine specimen of a man."

"Don't let _him_ hear you say that, it will only make his ego bigger."

"Speaking of fine men, who was that hunk across the street?"

"I don't know," Kate said, and she didn't.

But she was going to find out.


	2. New Kid on the Block

"_Mom?" She turns her head back and forth, searching. "Mommy?" Thunder booms, and the sky opens to let loose a storm. "Mommy!" When she turns again, she's standing in front of the headstone of a grave._ Johanna Beckett.

* * *

Kate sits up in the bed, her skin cold and clammy with sweat. She breathes heavily.

She has the same nightmare almost every night since her mother's death.

Kate falls back onto her pillow and sobs.

A light knocking on the door of her bedroom makes her look up. "Kate?" It's Kevin, looking in through a crack at her door.

He slips through and tiptoes to the side of her bed. "I could hear you talking. Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she tells him, wiping tears from her eyes. "Just a dream, Kev. I'm fine."

"Captain says that you're usually lying when you say that," he whispers, and sits on the end of her small bed.

She doesn't respond, but pulls her legs in close to her body.

They sit there a moment, silent. She likes that she's not alone, but she knows she needs to be strong. For him, and for herself.

"Go back to bed, Kevin. I'm okay."

"You sure?" he asks, not entirely convinced.

"Yeah. I'll see you in the morning."

Reluctantly, he stands and moves for the door. "'Night, Kate."

"'Night," she whispers, and then he's gone back to his room, and she's alone again.

Hiding her face back in her pillow to suppress her sobs, Kate cries herself back to sleep.

* * *

The next morning's the same as always. Get up, fight over the shower, scarf down breakfast, walk to school.

But as they're walking out of the house, a car pulls out of the driveway across the street and speeds past them. The driver is the kid that waved at them the evening before.

Javi and Kev start talking animatedly about what Kate assumes is the car that just drove past, but she stops listening. Her eyelids are heavy and there's a tap-tapping at the base of her skull.

While the nightmares and the lack of sleep were fairly regular, the less-than-occasional headaches were almost her undoing.

But her feet keep moving down the sidewalk in pace with her brothers, and eventually they make it to the school. She waves half-heartedly at the boys and turns in the direction of her locker.

Leaning against it is Lanie, nervously biting at a fingernail. Her eyes get wide and her hand drops when she spots Kate. "Hey!" she calls, attempting to mask the worry in her voice.

Kate approaches. "Can you tone it down a little? It's one of those mornings."

Lanie slides off her locker and onto the one next to it. "Sorry, girl. Nightmares again?"

Other than the Cap and her brothers, Lanie was the only person who knew about the dreams. And _only_ Lanie knew how ofter they came about, but Kate had a feeling Kev would be figuring it out if she kept sleep-talking.

"Yeah," she sighs. "And we've got that damn Chemistry test today."

"Well, I'd let you copy me but I'm totally gonna bomb," Lanie admits.

"Shut up," Kate argues. "You're the smartest one in the class. If we didn't do our homework together, _I_ would fail." Kate spins the combo on her locker and yanks it open. A hidden bottle of aspirin beckons from the back corner, and she wraps her thin fingers around the white, label-less bottle.

Lanie talks about Chemistry while Kate pops off the top and shakes two white pills into her hand. She throws them back dry, and Lanie makes a face in the corner of her eye.

When the bottle's returned to its place and her locker's closed up, the girls turn to walk down the hall. The bell shrills over their heads and they split in their respective directions with a quick goodbye.

And Kate can tell it's going to be a long day.

* * *

Chemistry is right after lunch, so Lanie and Kate walk in together. They claim their table in the second row beside the wall, with Kate on the inside.

Slowly, the class files in and the tables fill up. The bell rings and the teacher starts giving instructions for the test.

Mid-sentence, the door swings open and a student walks—more like saunters—inside.

"And you would be…?" Mr. Graves asks, glasses tipped on the edge of his nose.

"Rick Castle," he answers, and he glances in Kate's direction.

They lock eyes for a fraction of a second before he's looking back at Graves and smirking.

"Okay," Graves sighs. "Find an empty seat."

When he'd looked at her, Kate realized that _he_'s the one who lives across the street. The one who drove past them on the street this morning.

Lanie leans in closer to her, "Isn't that…" she whispers.

"Yeah," Kate breathes.

He stars in their direction, and finally sits directly behind Kate.

She resists the urge to look back at him. Graves starts to talk again, and she can feel the boy's eyes on the back of her head.

The tap-tap-tapping of her migraine is suddenly gone. Or, at least, less noticeable.

When the teacher starts to pass out the tests, he walks up to the table behind Kate.

"You're new, so you don't have to take the test. I don't know your range yet."

"I'll take it anyway," he says, and she can hear the grin in his voice. "I like a challenge."

"Suit yourself," Graves says dismissively, and Kate can hear the test flutter onto the tabletop.

When she picks up her pencil to start, she finds she's forgotten her name.

* * *

Lanie walks home with Kate, Kev, and Javi. When they get there, there's a plate of cookies wrapped in plastic on the kitchen table.

"Oh, sweet!" Kevin exclaims, and Kate smiles for the first time all day.

But when him and Javi get there, they sigh. He picks up a note and begins to read aloud: "Take these across the street and make nice with the new neighbors. _All_ of you."

Kate glances out an open window across the street. His car isn't there. "Let's go, guys. Why not? They might offer to let you have some."

Kev perks up immediately. "Okay!" he says, and gathers up the plate.

"Whatever," Javi mutters, and follows Kev out the side door.

Kate grabs Lanie's arm and drags her after the boys.

They cross the street and walk up the half-empty driveway. Kevin slides a hand out from beneath the plate to ring the doorbell.

The group stands awkwardly on the front stoop of the house, and a voice echoes from behind the door.

"Coooominnnnng!" a woman's voice sing-songs.

The door swings open and a woman with long, wavy, dark red hair appears in a majestic blue evening gown. "Why, hello! And who do we have here?" she says breathily.

"We live across the street," Kev says. "And we just wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood."

"Oh, how delightful. And cookies! Alexis, come here!" she calls into the house.

Around a corner teeters a little girl, maybe four or five, with straight, fiery orange hair. "Hi!" she exclaims at the sight of company.

"Alexis," the woman says, "show the young man with the plate into the kitchen."

"Okay," the little girl squeaks, and she grabs Kevin's arm and tugs him into the house.

She turns back to the other three. "Well, _do_ come in!"

They're just about to step inside when there's a loud roar behind them and a car pulls into the empty space in the driveway.

"Oh, there's my son. Richard!"

The boy from Chemistry climbs out and eyes the new faces on his doorstep. "Hello, Mother. Do we have guests?"

"These are our new neighbors, darling! And they've come bearing cookies!"

"Ooh!" he says, and slips past the crowd and into the house.

The woman waves them inside and shuts the door.

* * *

**A/N: Don't hate me for forgetting about this story. Fringe took my mind hostage (that I was willing is beside the point) but Season 5 reinspired me. Working on chapter 3!**


End file.
